BEAUTIFUL MINDS |
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Alison Beard is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review .
c . 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp .
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for evaluating mine , and if I find some value in one , I don ’ t give up until I ’ m able to perfect it . Probably the most important thing , though , is that I love what I do . That ’ s a key element to achieving your goals .
When you have a hit product , do you always feel pressure to match that success ? I never planned to achieve this peak , and after it , I had no thought that I ’ d like to do better . My only goal is to do well . I ’ m not thinking about whether people will like it or not . I need to love it and meet my targets , nothing else . What happens after that depends not on me but others . The Cube created the strongest connection with people — which is harder than being popular — maybe because it taught them that they could solve difficult problems and rely on no one
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but themselves to succeed . It has meaning , and that ’ s enough for me .
Why did you create your own studio ? I did it because I had the financial ability to . I had an idea to try to create a team and work together because I didn ’ t do that before . And it was successful , but I found out it ’ s not right for me . So the studio still exists , but it ’ s a one-man show . Meanwhile , the Rubik brand carries on with an English company that has a great team of people ; I ’ m on the board of directors and can make suggestions and have influence , but I ’ m not part of the company ’ s everyday operations .
As an advocate for STEM education , what improvements do you want to see ? And what should companies do to help ?
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I prefer to call it STEAM since art is an important part of education . The key is starting early , from elementary school , and continuing on . This small blue planet and its entire interdependent population depend on future generations learning these subjects . I and my company have tried to help . The Cube has become a universal symbol of everything I believe education should be about : fostering curiosity , the rewards of problem solving , and the joys of finding your own solution . We ’ ve introduced the You CAN Do the Rubik ’ s Cube curriculum to hundreds of US schools and are expanding it elsewhere to help math teachers impart learning about algorithms , geometry , ratio and proportions , mathematical operations , algebra , combinatorics , and even physics in an engaging , interactive , tangible way . |